After repairs to a broken sewer pipe resulted in a torn up front yard, Julie Bass and her family looked at the options they had before them to fix up the front yard of their home in Oak Park Michigan.

They looked at having the front yard re-sodded and discovered that the endeavor would be "shockingly expensive".

They started looking for ways to take care of the issue that would be more cost effective.

They went to the library and spent time researching other options and found that they could use the piles of dirt left by the workers after the repairs to the sewer pipes by building five large decorative style raised bed planters.

They could utilize the planters to plant tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, squash, corn, carrots, peas, cucumbers as well as other vegetables and some flowers for decoration.

According to an ABC story Julie was warned that she was in violation of a city ordinance that restricts vegetable garden planting from the front yards of city residents. The warning according to the story required her to remove the garden.

After the initial warning, Oak Park code enforcement officer Kevin Jones issued Bass a citation on June 8 for growing a vegetable garden on the front yard of her property.

The ordinance reads: "All unpaved portions of the [screening and landscaping] site shall be planted with grass ground cover, shrubbery, or other suitable live plant material."

The city ordinance states that "suitable" plant material is allowed on the lawn area of residences.

According to the ABC story local media asked city planner Kevin Rulkowski what that meant, he said suitable means "common:" lawn, nice shrubs, and flowers. However, the city ordinance does not specifically state that those are the only allowed plant materials. Besides the fact that most vegetables sprout flowers prior to producing vegetables or fruits.

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